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It was exercise morning today, so after our usual start to the day, we got to it. After we were done, I went out for a 45 minute, 3 mile walk (I finally got my tracker out) while Steve had his shower.

We had a pretty laid back day. It was back to clear, blue skies...but wind was a bit of an issue, making it unpleasant to sit outside, although tolerable as long as you were out of the wind. Steve sat out reading for awhile but for the most part I stayed inside.

We are planning a potluck and campfire for New Year's Eve so after Earl dropped a couple boxes of firewood off, Steve decided to also go into Quartzsite and pick up some. While he was there, he filled up our water jugs...and also bought me a new flag for the whip on my quad (Merry Christmas, honey!)

About 3:30, we got a phone call from Ruth and Dale. They are full timers from Auburn, WA and fellow RV-Dreamers. They are also staying at La Posa South and wanted to drop by for a visit. We met them a year ago last September at the RV-Dreams Fall Rally in Harrisburg, Oregon. The wind had quieted down somewhat so we sat outside with a cocktail and had a great visit. They are here for another week so we plan on getting together for dinner one night this week.

And that was pretty much our day...tomorrow we plan on driving to Lake Havasu City to pick up Steve's ATV and do a little shopping.

Ahhh....it's nice to be back to the wide open skies of Arizona! Although it was basically a cloudy day, the sun did try to get through later in the afternoon...we were accused of bringing the clouds back with us from BC!

We basically spent the morning getting settled back in and then managed to get out for a walk. I spent the later part of the afternoon getting caught up on our blog while Steve read.

At 5:00, we went over to Earl and Allison's for cocktails in the late afternoon sun...

And then headed inside for a wonderful home-made Mexican dinner...

...of Tamales, Tostadas and Salad....

YUM!

We rounded off a great evening playing Rummikub...

After about five games, we called it a night...Earl and I were the winners this evening. Good luck next time Allison and Steve!! Thanks again, for a lovely evening...good food and good company!

I hope you all enjoyed Christmas and celebrated it in your own special way. To us it means spending time with family and we had a wonderful week back home...made even more special with the addition of our first grandchild, Conner.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, we were planning our traditional Christmas Eve...sitting around the table playing Rumoli and indulging in a variety of appetizers. Well, we missed the Rumoli part...before we knew it, it was after 9:00 and no one felt like setting up the game...but we certainly fulfilled the eating part! We started off with spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl (prepared by Angie) and chips and onion dip (made by Chris)...while Rob prepared homemade venison sausage rolls...from scratch!

He got his meat grinder out and started by grinding the venison along with some bacon and added spices.

Using puff pastry, he formed two large rolls...

Ta da!...two large "jelly roll" type sausage rolls that he angle-sliced and we all consumed...they were excellent!

Next was Chris and his "Pinty's" chicken wings....

Yum!

Followed by Angie's homemade pizza...also YUM!

We were up before Conner Christmas morning...the tree is looking beautiful...

...and look! Santa came...this is Conner's stash...

He's a little too young yet to know what it's all about...just wait a year or two, though! Today, he wasn't all that sure about all these brightly coloured packages that everyone wanted him to unwrap.

Dad showed him how to do it...

...and so did Mom...

After Conner opened a few of his gifts, it was time for the rest of us to take our turn. Chris got a new piece of luggage...

Rob, work pants and a dress shirt (nice combination, don't you think?)...

Steve, chocolates with a gift certificate to his favourite clothing store...

I got a beautiful new sweater, scarf and gloves...

And Angie's gift was a very unique wrap-style sweater...

Conner didn't think much about the toque we got him from North Pole, Alaska!

After the breakfast egg puff was cooked, Angie put the dinner ham in the oven and we sat down to our traditional Christmas breakfast. The ham came out of the oven at noon just in time for the turkey to go in. Steve peeled almost 10 pounds of potatoes...that should be plenty! (Okay...it ended up being more than plenty!)

Steve and I decided to go out for a walk on the park trail behind the house and look for a geocache. We had some "trackables" to place and we knew one of the caches we had found last year would be big enough for them. "A Trackable is a sort of physical geocaching "game piece." You will often find them in geocaches or see them at geocaching gatherings. Each Trackable is etched with a unique code that can be used to log its movements on Geocaching.com as it travels in the real world. Some of these items have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles thanks to geocachers who move them from cache to cache!"
Chris decided to come along with us...and he ended up being the one to find the geocache.

With that done, we continued on our walk...a little pre-dinner exercise. Then it was time to relax a bit before company arrived for dinner...Steve's sister, Nadine, and her family are joining us for Christmas Dinner.

Grampa and Conner having fun...

There's Conner all ready for company dressed in his cool shirt and jeans...(Mom and Dad don't look bad either!)

Every month since Conner was born, Angie has taken a picture of him beside this teddy bear...today he is 11 months old...

More colourful packages to unwrap...with cousin Amanda...

From left to right, going around the room...Rob with Conner, Angie, Amanda, Matthew, Chris, Mike, Steve and Nadine...

Angie and I in final preparation for dinner...

Finally, the big event...left to right...Chris, Steve, (Conner is in his high chair between Steve and Rob), Rob, Mike, Nadine, Amanda, Matthew and Angie...not everyone has their hats on yet!

As usual, there seems to be such a big build up to dinner...then it's over, just like that!! And clean-up starts...yup, that's Steve washing dishes (he lost the draw)...

We all sat around the rest of the evening chatting...Nadine, Steve, Mike and I sitting at the kitchen table while the kids sat in the TV room (to the right). Another great Christmas spent with family! What a great gingerbread house the Minckler family put together this year!

Boxing Day (for our American friends, that's the day after Christmas...click here to learn more about it's origin and history) morning was another lazy start. At around 11:30 our good friends Rob and Nancy dropped over for a quick visit with us...

Then it was time to head off to visit those loved ones that are no longer with us...but we still think of them often and take flowers at Christmas time.

It was going on 2:30 when we arrived at Dwight and Helen's place (my bro and sister-in-law). We had a great visit but after a couple of hours, Conner was getting a little antsie...it was time to head home anyway. Left to right...Steve, me, Dwight and Helen...

Friday again...wow...a week had gone by already! It was time for Steve and I to head back south. I puttered around all morning getting packed and doing "stuff" in preparation for leaving...we had to be at the airport by about 1:00. So after playing and spending as much time as possible with Conner (he must have known we were leaving because he didn't want to go down for his morning nap), we said our goodbyes and after hugs and kisses, Chris drove us to the airport.

Our trip went very smoothly. The plane arrived a little early in Phoenix and we were through Customs, had picked up our luggage and were back at the La Quinta Inn and our truck by about 7:15...pretty good considering our flight wasn't even supposed to land until 6:30.

We pulled into La Posa South LTVA at 10:00 p.m....a two and a half hour drive from Phoenix in the dark...very unusual for us!

We had a wonderful visit and a great Christmas with our family...but we are happy to be back to our "home on wheels"...and Arizona!

Sunday was another lazy start to the day...good morning, Conner and daddy...

Angela, Chris, Steve and I did get moving a little faster this morning, though...we drove into Sidney just before 10:30 and dropped Angela off at church then the 3 of us went for coffee. We enjoyed an hour of chatting and then picked Angela up and headed home.

Conner having lunch...a serious moment...

...followed by some goofing off...

A little later, we all drove into Victoria to visit Steve's Dad...it's coffee and snack time at 2:00...

After a nice visit with Dad (Grandpa and Great-Grandpa), we headed back home. Angie and I went right into Sidney to pick up a few groceries...so very nice to spend a little one-on-one time with my daughter-in-law (even if it is just to go grocery shopping)! While we were gone, Conner played soccer...

I made lasagna for dinner tonight....and afterwards we settled in to watch a movie. Another great family day!

Monday morning I was up early and saw Rob off to work...at 6:15 a.m. I sat enjoying my coffee until everyone else got up. Angela is going back to Burnaby today to spend Christmas with her family...it is so nice that she was able to come over and spend time with us. They wanted to have Conner open the gift Chris and Angela has brought for him...this is Conner's first Christmas present...he wasn't really sure about what it was all about...

Conner with his new Alphabet Train...thanks, Chris and Angela....

My best bud, Nancy, came by shortly after 9:30 to pick me up...we are going Christmas shopping...or should I say, I am going Christmas shopping. We had a great day and I managed to get everything I was after. I think it is the very first time that I have ever done my Christmas shopping two days before Christmas!

Tuesday, Rob headed off to work again bright and early. Not long after he left, Angie came down with Conner, followed by Steve...everyone was up except Chris. Since he is sleeping in the basement right below us, it wasn't long before he too was up.

Angie, Conner and I headed off into Sidney shortly before 9:00. The first thing we did was go for a walk along the waterfront...it was a beautiful, but chilly morning. Then we had grocery shopping for all the provisions we would need to make our favourite dishes...for Christmas Eve (tonight) and breakfast and dinner tomorrow night.

We were back about noon...and then it was time to get to work. After a quick lunch, we got to work cooking....

Rob was home at about 1:00...they only worked until noon today...and he, Chris and Steve spent the afternoon watching some documentaries on TV...

Tonight, we are going to have our traditional Christmas Eve...we spend time together, playing Romoli, eating all sorts of yummy appetizers while enjoying a few cocktails.

I am going to sign off now...it's going to be a busy Christmas Day and Boxing Day...and then we fly back to Phoenix Friday....followed by a drive back out to Quartzsite. I will continue the blog once we are back there.

Steve and I would like to wish all of our family and friends, old and new, a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year!

Banff

About Us

We married in 1982 and our sons, Rob and Chris were born in 1983 and 1985. In 1990 we built our dream home in North Saanich just north of Victoria BC on 1.21 acres. We both had long careers, Dianne in Human Resources and Steve as Branch Manager for a controls systems wholesaler.
Steve always felt that there were no guarantees in life as far as health and mortality went, so we planned to retire early and RV full-time.
In late 2009 we began the build process on our custom Toy Hauler truck, taking delivery in early 2010. We moved into our new Montana 5th wheel in Feb 2010, living in it for 4 months while still working. In May 2010 we purchased 2 Yamaha Grizzly 550 ATVs. We're ready!
Just shy of our 55th birthdays, on June 25, 2010 we retired and started our life as gypsies.
We prefer dry camping (boondocking), getting as far away from civilization as possible. However, our size limits us from getting into all of those remote areas. Good thing we have the ATVs to explore with.